Vines devastated by late frost

Freezing winds blowing through the vineyard froze everything in its path. The warm start to the year meant the buds were early and quite well-developed when it struck. Although we put out 1,000 candles they are not so effective at tackling air frosts.

Second buds are never quite as fruitful and we may not have enough time for them to ripen properly – in our case this means a 50per cent shortfall which is not good for the long-term view.

It is very frustrating – English wines can compete throughout the world and are winning lots of international awards. The failure of harvests this year will hit the shelves in 2019 and 2020.